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Firearms

For the Old World, it’s fine, but for Thirty Years’ War, they’re too advanced and reliable. There’s even a few paragraphs in the Old World Armoury that talks about the evolution of firearms in the Old World from hand gonnes to matchlocks to wheellocks and flintlocks and on to the “modern” handgun. Those wheellocks and matchlocks, though, saw use in addition to flintlocks.

Unfortunately OWA doesn’t do anything with them mechanically. So, I’m going to cobble something together on my own. At the same time, one thing I very much appreciate about WFRP is how it just says, “Whatever man, it’s a Hand Weapon,” and doesn’t get too persnickety about details beyond that. Weighing things down with details for details’ sake isn’t going to do me any favors.

Pistols and Firearms are either Matchlock, Wheellock, or Firelock (Flintlock).

Matchlocks – as Firearm/Pistol, but Unreliable range is 15% larger (attack rolls of 81-98 mean a roll on the Misfire Chart) and is Rare.

Wheellock – as Firearm/Pistol, but Unreliable range is 10% larger (attack rolls of 86-98 mean a roll on the Misfire Chart).

Firelock – as Firearm/Pistol, but 5% more difficult to acquire.

Type

Misfire

Explodes

Rarity

Matchlock

81-98

99-00

Rare

Wheellock

86-98

99-00

Very Rare

Firelock

96-98

99-00

Very Rare (-5%)

When firing an Unreliable weapon, if the roll falls within the Misfire range, regardless if the roll would have been successful, there will be a secret roll on the Misfire Chart. Experimental weapons will roll on the Advanced Misfire Chart in Old World Armoury.

Misfire Chart

Roll

Result

01-20

Partial burn. Not all the powder catches; range and effective strength are halved (rounding fractions up) for this shot only.

21-50

Charge fails to ignite; try again next round.

51-70

Chage fails to ignite; reload and try again.

71-80

Slow burn, or ‘hang fire.’ The priming goes off, but nothing else seems to happen. However the weapon will fire in the following round, with potentially dangerous consequences. Anyone who is stupid enough to look down the barrel of a gun which has hung firetakes an automatic point blank head hit.

81-90

Flash in the pan. The powder around the touchhole ignites in a bright flash, but the gun does not go off. The gun must be reprimed before it can be fired again; this takes one round. The firer suffers a BS-10% on the reprimed shot, due to an understandable degree of nervousness about what is to happen next…

91-98

Burn-round. The powder catches, but the shot is either insufficiently wadded or a little too small for the barrel. The net result is that the heat of the burning powder welds the shot into the barrel. The weapon is now useless and has a 50% chance of exploding if anyone tries to use it again. A successful Challenging Trade (Gunsmith) Skill Test will repair it.

99-00

Weapon explodes, inflicting normal damage on the wielder and is destroyed.

Musket-Rest: Allows for a an Aim (Full Action) action. If the following action is a Standard Attack, gain BS+20%.
The Misfire Chart in the core book is boring (it jams! it blows up!) and unrealistic (if it jams, you need a Trade roll to fix it). The Advanced Misfire Chart in Old World Armoury is kinda brutal (40-50% chance of it blowing up); though I’m okay with it for Experimental weapons. The above chart is effectively the Advanced Misfires Chart from WFRP 1E’s Warhammer Companion.